In Washington state, Japanese Americans are joining immigrant rights activists demanding the closure of an immigration detention center in Tacoma run by the private firm GEO Group. The Northwest Detention Center has been the site of several hunger strikes over the years due to inhumane conditions. State inspectors were recently denied entry to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. On Friday, the groups blocked Seattle’s federal building as part of their action.

Ana Tanaka: “I am here for my great-grandmother, Yoshiye Iwamura, who had to give birth to my grandmother, Karen Iwamura, in camp at Minidoka. I say free them all and stop repeating history.”

The groups Tsuru for Solidarity and La Resistencia also marked the Annual Day of Remembrance, when more than 100,000 Japanese Americans were declared enemies of the state in 1942 and incarcerated.